Grick & Snoopy’s Wedding at La Terrazza

by gigi on August 4, 2010

Generally, I don’t blog about my visits to weddings or other large meals that are paid for by other people. My reasoning for this is that if someone was nice enough to spend money to take me out for dinner and in the event that the meal wasn’t very good, I’d feel pretty bad about putting down their treat to me on the internet. So as a result, you’ll find that most of the meals I blog about are paid by me and if they aren’t, I try to make it as clear as possible who paid for the meal or how it came about.

Whew, now that I’ve gotten that disclaimer out of the way… Grick and Snoopy got married a little while back now. After some re-jigging of their reception venue, they ended up choosing to host their lovely reception at La Terrazza in Yaletown. I had such a great time at the wedding and Grick knew that I enjoyed the food sooooo much that he gave me the go ahead to blog about their reception menu. Thanks Grick! I should note that I blogged about La Terrazza before and although I enjoyed the food, it didn’t blow me away. However, the meal put together for Grick and Snoopy’s wedding was fantastic and I felt it was much better than the last meal I had there. After all this explaining, I’m sure you want to read about the food, so here goes…

Before the guests were all seated, several antipasti bites were passed around by the servers. There was quite a selection but unfortunately, I did not take any pictures. The first sit-down course was the Rigatoni Bolognese. The rigatoni was perfectly al dente and retained a nice, slightly chewy consistency to it with some bite. The Bolognese sauce had a wonderful meaty flavour and there was just enough to lightly coat the pasta without being too heavy. Jenkins had the vegetarian version of this dish and he also noted that the pasta was excellently prepared. I also felt that the dish was quite large, considering that we still had three more courses to go.

After the relatively heavy rigatoni, we followed up with a light Insalata Misto. The mixed greens, carrot, tomatoes, and cucumbers were lightly tossed in a red wine-dijon vinaigrette. The vinaigrette had a very light flavour with a hint of tanginess and the veggies were all very fresh.

For the main course, we had a grilled AAA beef tenderloin with sangiovese demi glace and scalloped potatoes. I generally find that the flavour is lacking in tenderloins due to its cut but the one we had at La Terrazza was surprisingly flavourful. The meat was very tender and juicy and the demi glace was the perfect accompaniment. I’m not a huge scalloped potatoes fan so I only found them to be ok but Jenkins and several other people raved about how they enjoyed it so much that they were hoping the kitchen had seconds tucked away somewhere.

After Grick and Snoopy went for their pre-wedding tasting, Grick came back telling me about how great the warm white chocolate cheesecake wrapped in phyllo with sour cherries was. I was a bit skeptical but I have to say that this cheesecake completely surpassed my expectations. I would even venture to say that it was my favourite dish of the evening. The phyllo was perfectly light and crispy and delicately tucked away inside was a warm and creamy piece of cheesecake. I could taste the white chocolate but it was not overly sweet and the sour cherries provided the right amount of tanginess to cut through the rich cheesecake. I found out later that some people were able to score multiple servings of the dessert because they found it to be so good! If only I had known about that too!

As if the cheesecake wasn’t a luxurious enough dessert, there was also wedding cake from Ganache. I’ve blogged about Ganache countless times and since I dove right into the wedding cake table, I neglected to take any pictures in my haste. Rest assured that similar to many of Peter’s creations at Ganache, it was very tasty.

If you’re in the process of planning your wedding and trying to figure out a reception venue, I highly recommend La Terrazza. The service was top notch and everyone was super friendly. From what Grick and Snoopy told me, working with them prior to the wedding was very straight forward and they were easy to deal with. And if you’re not planning a wedding, I still recommend La Terrazza and that at a minimum, you give the cheesecake in phyllo a try!